


The librarian soulmate au someone actually asked for

by Brownies96



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Librarian AU, M/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 08:26:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16698907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brownies96/pseuds/Brownies96
Summary: For soft_and_bold's birthday I wrote them this fic, posted it to tumblr and only just realised I didn't post it here. Oops.I got them to pick three fanfiction tropes and turned them into a one-shot. It ended up wayyy longer than I meant for it to.They picked: Librarian au, enemies to friends to lovers, and soulmate au. I hope you guys think it worked.CW: swearing, implied frickle-frackle, angst





	The librarian soulmate au someone actually asked for

Virgil was seriously considering smacking himself in the head with the heaviest book he could find. Hopefully, it would knock him out for the last hour of his shift. He was so freaking exhausted, and everything that could have gone wrong during his shift at the public library had gone wrong:

First, that slimy motherfucker of a politician that was supposed to read to the kids that morning hadn’t shown up, so Virgil’d had to read to the little brats who pulled at his legs and asked him to do voices. He wasn’t really mad at the kids but being around people, especially small people with no filters, was very hard.

Then, just when it had looked like he was going to be able to enjoy some quality time re-organising the reference section, he’d heard Logan make his weird little error noise that usually meant someone had ignored the Dewey decimal system while putting books away. But when he’d gone to find his co-worker, what he’d found was something much more annoying.

Virgil had never asked Logan where his marks where, he’d sometimes wondered if Logan even had any, it would make sense considering Logan’s attitude towards romance. But there they were. Logan was holding his shirt up and looking at his hip in wonder, his fingers delicately tracing the sky-blue shape on it. Next to him, Virgil recognised Patton, one of the volunteers who ran baking classes in the library. Patton always bought extra coffees for the library staff when he showed up to run his classes. Patton was staring at his arm, which was a much darker royal blue.

“I guess I’ll be going. You two have a lot to talk about.” Came a voice. A man was standing behind Patton and smiling, “No it’s fine,” he insisted, “I can run my lines here, go enjoy getting to know your soulmate.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, now he was going to have to run the library by himself, it was a legal employee benefit that you could take the day off if you found your soulmate. Virgil tried and failed not to let the idea of running the library by himself get to him. It was suddenly a very big building.

Virgil went back to the counter. He wasn’t going to have time to sort books if he was the only person on. He spent the next hour checking out books to people and scanning in the returns. He’d have given anything for a nap.

While checking out the books he looked at his own soulmark, it was a fairly common one to have; the inside of his hands. The black was a weird juxtaposition against his pale skin. He’d always avoided holding people’s hands because if it. He’d once scared himself silly because he’d held hands with a cute boy from his class, only for his hand to remain black.

It was only when Gwendolyn, a usual patron of the library complained about the person singing in the fantasy section, that Virgil snapped out of his thoughts. Great, he thought sarcastically, confrontation, my favourite.

He went over to the fantasy section and saw the man from earlier, Patton’s apparent friend. Was this guy for real? He was singing ‘A lovely night’ from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella and literally dancing to the tune. The idea that someone could do such a thing without any fear of people seeing was so foreign to Virgil that he was almost too scared to approach, but since Logan was off with Patton, he didn’t exactly have much of a choice.

“Um, could you sing somewhere else? You’re bothering the patrons.” Virgil said.

“I beg your pardon?” Said the man, looking at Virgil like he’d just announced his intention to take over the world using only lime-flavoured Jell-O and a violin.

“You need to go sing somewhere else.” Virgil spoke as though he was talking to an especially stupid five-year-old, “your singing is disturbing other people.”

“I heard you the first time,” the man said with a pout so exaggerated it was almost cartoon-ish.

Virgil went back to the desk and was incredibly annoyed to notice that the man followed him.

“Soooooooo,” the man said, drawing the word out unnecessarily, “Logan and Patton, huh?” Virgil considered ignoring this but the man was demanding so much attention he couldn’t.

“Yeah, I didn’t see that one coming, tbh.” Virgil said.

“Oh, it was obvious,” said the man, “If I had to listen to Patton spend any more time going on about the ‘smart and handsome library guy’ I would have died of boredom.”

“Really?” Virgil asked, “How do you know Patton?”

“He’s my roommate.” Said the man, “I’m Roman, by the way, I don’t suppose it would ‘disturb the other library patrons’ if I asked for you name?”

“I’m Virgil.”

“Well, Virgil,” said Roman, checking his phone, “it would seem I must be off. I would say it’s been a wonderful time, but I hear lying is frowned upon. Adieu!”

What the hell? Virgil thought to himself.

Unfortunately, that was not Roman’s only appearance at the library.

Virgil wasn’t sure what Roman’s relationship with Patton was, but it seemed to be one that involved following Patton to the library just about every day. After a few weeks, Virgil managed to get used to Roman and his habit of waxing poetic about everything from Shakespeare to the library shelves to Disney movies. Eventually it was like Roman had become part of the furniture.

“Hello there, Marylin Morose!”

A very annoying part of the furniture.

Virgil rolled his eyes, he made his way to the desk and began to scan in the returned books, doing his best to ignore Roman, who he was pretty sure was talking about some dream he had.

“ … and then the unicorns went and stabbed everyone with their horns and I was just like ‘whoa’ you can’t just go around killing my subjects like that and they were like ‘we’re unicorns we do what we want.’”

“Virgil?” It was Logan. “I’ve re-done the display out the front, and I printed of the rainbow labels for the LGBT books for Pride month. Do you need me to do anything else?”

“I don’t think so. You can head home early if you like.” Virgil shrugged, he was the manager on shift, and had been since the beginning of the month, ever since Joan had broken their leg, so he was technically in charge, but he didn’t like acting like it.

“In that case I shall remain here and wait for Patton.” Logan sat down on the seat beside Roman, who was sitting on the benches beside the front desk.

“So, Logan, you’ve been over at Patton’s a lot recently, but you don’t stay the night? What’s up with that?”

“I don’t see how its any of your business.” Logan said, Virgil mentally awarded Logan a point. “But just because two people are soulmates doesn’t mean they have to rush into things. We are still learning about each other, which is almost more important than our soulmarks.”

“That’s … kind of sweet, in a really nerdy way.” Roman said.

“Logan!” There was a crash from behind Logan as Patton leapt over the back of the chair to hug him. “Were you being sweet without me?”

“I-I um …” Logan had turned red as he leant into Patton’s embrace.

“Are you ready to go, Roman?” Patton asked.

“Hm? Oh, go without me, you two deserve some alone time.” Roman gave Patton a lecherous wink which made Patton turn an endearing shade of pink.

Oh great, Virgil thought sarcastically, I get to be stuck with Roman for even longer. But as Patton and Logan left there was a brief moment of silence.

“So,” Roman said, breaking the silence, much to Virgil’s annoyance. “I suppose you’re wondering why I live with Patton.”

Virgil looked at him, “I honestly don’t care all that much.”

“It’s not because we’re dating or anything. I just needed a place to stay and Patton offered me his couch.” Roman spoke quickly.

“That’s good, I guess.” Virgil said, when what Roman had said suddenly sunk in. “Wait did you not have a place to live? What the hell happened?” Virgil didn’t have to like someone to not want them to be homeless.

“Well,” Roman chuckled nervously, “acting doesn’t exactly pay the bills and I’m not really welcome at my parent’s place so Patton’s couch really was my only option.”

Virgil just stared at Roman. How was he saying this so calmly?   
“It’s really just a new adventure. You look worried, are you alright?”

Virgil didn’t know what his face looked like but judging by Roman’s expression it can’t have been good.

“I’m fine.” Virgil said too quickly, raising Roman’s eyebrows, “I guess I just feel like you shouldn’t have to couch-surf.”

Roman looked surprised but his voice didn’t give it away. “I knew you’d come ‘round to the old Roman charm eventually.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Virgil smirked and went back to his scanning.

Still, Virgil sort of understood why Roman spent so much time at the library. Virgil was pretty sure Patton had a pretty tiny apartment a couple of blacks away, and the library was one of the few places you could just hang out without being expected to spend money. It was one of the things Virgil really liked about libraries, the way there were no expectations on you as a visitor.

In fact, now that Virgil was paying attention to Roman, the more he seemed to understand about him. He realised that Roman mustn’t feel comfortable in silence, which was why he filled it with so much nonsense. It was weird, this sudden feeling of understanding, it was like he got where Roman was coming from. Like Roman had gone to open the windows to his soul and knocked down the front of the house instead.

Oh crap, while he’d had his epiphany Roman had been looking at him expectantly. What was he supposed to do? Should he say something? It would be weird not to.

“Before I got this job I still lived with my parents. I basically never left my room, though.” Virgil offered.

“Somehow, I could sense that about you.” Roman said with a smile.

“Yeah? Well we can’t all live in the spotlight.” Virgil responded.

Roman hummed at that with a smile. Virgil was confused, he had been expecting a response because of Roman’s dislike of silence, but Roman was twiddling his thumbs and looking around. Was Virgil wrong? No. The set of Roman’s shoulders showed his discomfort. So why was he being quiet?

He’s doing it for you. A voice in Virgil’s head whispered. But Virgil ignored it, his day was weird enough without him listening to some frankly insane voice in his head.

He watched Roman go home at closing time. They hadn’t talked much except for Roman asking Virgil for a book recommendation, then Roman had read next to the counter the whole time. The peace and quiet had actually been quite nice, even though Virgil couldn’t help checking on Roman, fortunately Roman’s shoulders slowly relaxed as they day went on.

The next few weeks were much the same. Roman would sit with Virgil, they’d banter for a bit, before Roman would ask for another book recommendation, then they’d sit together at the front desk until closing time. Their main source of banter was how gross Logan and Patton were. They really were disgustingly cute.

It became commonplace to see Logan and Patton holding hands between the stacks, and ‘mysteriously’ taking breaks at the exact same time. Patton would always arrive with lovingly prepared food for everyone who was at work that day, but he would fuss over Logan more than anyone else. In turn, Logan would ensure that the reading corner and the rooms for the classes were always immaculate. Patton never had any trouble with the rooms he ran his events in. Logan’s love was the quieter kind. The kind an ungrateful person would only notice once it was taken away, but Patton always saw it. According to Roman, they talked to each other almost constantly, about everything from their status as soulmates, to the value of irrational numbers, to Patton’s favourite stuffed animal.

And while Virgil was happy for Logan it was making him think about his own soulmate more. Having marks on your hands was unbelievably common. Lots of people’s first contact with their soulmate was a handshake or a high-five or something along those lines. Heck, it was probably easier to sore people into categories of ‘marks on hands’ and ‘marks literally anywhere else’, beats the gender binary anyway, Virgil thought.

Virgil often wondered if it would be easier to have his soulmarks somewhere unusual, like Logan and Patton had. He definitely avoided touching people because of his soulmarks but having them in a weird place would probably draw attention to him, and he was not a fan of that at all.

It was late at night and Virgil was running inventory. The library was closed, and he was able to play his music through the speakers instead on his headphones. He felt way too self-conscious to dance (the windows weren’t covered), but he was able to sing along quietly as he did his work.

A loud banging at the door had him freaking out. He seriously considered diving behind the front desk and calling the police, but when he managed to bring himself to look, it was just Roman.

Roman gestured to the door and put his hands together in a plea. His face was bright red, and he was panting slightly.

“What are you doing here?” Virgil demanded as he let Roman in.

“Hide me!” Roman begged. Virgil arched an eyebrow and let Roman into the staff room.

“Phew,” Roman sighed, “I don’t think they’ll look for me here.”

“Who? What’s going on?” Virgil tapped his foot impatiently.

“Well, um-“ Roman turned even redder. “So I went home at closing time. And you’ve probably noticed that I try to stay here as late as possible so I can give Patton and Logan some private time,” Roman coughed, “Well I got home and um,” Roman paused and looked away from Virgil, “I didn’t give them enough time.”

Virgil’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t.” He said.

“I’m afraid I did.” Roman said, there was a bit of a laugh to his voice, his face buried in his hands.

Virgil laughed out loud. “You-, Oh God Roman, that’s awful. What did they say?”

“I don’t know, I ran away as soon as I could.”

“But like? Weren’t they in their room?” Virgil knew he shouldn’t be asking but he couldn’t resist.

“No, they were on the couch.” Roman’s brow furrowed in realisation. “Hey!” He said. “That’s my bed!” Roman’s indignance only made Virgil laugh harder.

“OK, Chuckles,” Roman said, trying to get Virgil to stop laughing at him,” what the hell am I supposed to do?”

Virgil let his laughter subside into minor giggling and thought for a moment. Oh God he was going to regret this.

“You can crash at mine. I have a couch that I can promise you nobody has had sex on,” Virgil paused to chortle, “but don’t make it weird.” He warned, he had just learned to tolerate Roman and really didn’t want to ruin that.

“I can’t promise that I won’t be weird,” Roman said, sounding more like his usual self, “but I can promise that I’ll do my best not to make you uncomfortable.”

“Deal.”

Virgil’s apartment was bigger than Patton’s, but not by much. Virgil had managed to get an apartment for his salary by compromising on location. He had to get what might be the world’s most unreliable bus home (to say that didn’t help his anxiety would be a major understatement), and the neighbourhood was on the dodgier side. But Virgil figured he barely had to leave other than to work, and he could do his grocery shopping near the library, so it didn’t really bother him that much. But as he brought Roman to his home, he found himself feeling really self-conscious about it. Had he tidies up? Was his couch covered in crap? He walked faster than usual in the hopes of getting this over and done with.

Roman opened his mouth to say something when they got in but closed it quickly. Wow, Virgil thought, he’s actually thinking before he speaks for once. Virgil was relieved to see that his couch wasn’t covered in crap, and he grabbed an old duvet from his closet along with some spare pillows.

“Here,” Virgil lay the duvet down on the couch and fluffed the pillows.

“Thanks,” said Roman who looked around. “I suppose I should ask: Where’s your bathroom? Do you want me to cook dinner? And are there any ground rules I should know?”

Virgil paused, really appreciating that Roman had asked because Virgil knew he would have been too nervous to say anything. “The bathroom in the door on the left down the hall.” Virgil began, trying to remember Roman’s other questions. “Uh, my fridge isn’t exactly well stocked. And um, I guess don’t wake me up, use the towel next to the sink, it’s the spare, and, uh, I dunno, don’t eat the jellybeans.” Virgil’s inflection made it sound like a question even though it wasn’t.

“The jellybeans?” Roman asked.

“They’re for hypoglycaemia.” Virgil said, “I don’t have diabetes or anything, but anxiety makes you lose blood sugar really fast, so they help me not get the shakes or anything.”

“Huh. I’ve never really thought about the physical symptoms of anxiety.”

“Lucky you.” Said Virgil dryly.

“Can I see what you’ve got? Making dinner is the least I could do.” Roman offered, referring back to Virgil’s responses.

“If you want,” Virgil waved a hand.

Roman decided to make them a stir-fry, mostly because you could stick just about anything in one and it would taste good. Virgil was going to say something when Roman grabbed a tin of pineapple slices but Roman just said “trust me,” and winked, which absolutely did not make Virgil blush, anyone who says it did was a big stinking liar.

It turned out Roman could be trusted, at least when it came to cooking. The stir fry was delicious, and Virgil had to admit that the tang of the pineapple was what made it.

“Are you a morning shower person or a night shower person?” Roman asked.

Virgil thought about it, “Both, I guess.”

Roman smiled, “Me too, Patton feels really strongly about night showers though, so I thought I’d check. Would you mind if I had one now?”

“Go ahead.” Roman left the table and Virgil was pleased to notice that Roman hadn’t made much mess. He only had to wash up the saucepan and their bowls.

Just as Virgil let the hot water drain out of the sink his felt his phone buzz in his pocket. It was Logan. Virgil took a steadying breath, both to reduce his phone anxiety and to stop himself from laughing. He was never going to be able to take Logan or Patton seriously ever again.

“Hello, Virgil speaking.”

“Hello Virgil, it’s Logan, Patton asked me to call you, he is very anxious-“

Virgil heard Patton in the background, “Lo, can I speak to him? Please?”

“One moment, I’m going to put Patton on,” Logan said. There were the usual weird phone-handing-over noises and Virgil heard Patton’s usually cheery voice strained with worry.

“Have you seen Roman. He uh, he kind of left in a hurry,” Virgil failed to hide his snort, “I just want to make sure he’s safe.

“He’s fine, he’s staying with me.” Virgil said, he could almost hear Patton deflating in relief. “I’ve set him up on my couch for tonight.”

“That’s good I just, um. I feel like maybe I should talk to him.”

“He’s in the shower at the moment, but I’ll get him to call you once he’s out.”

“Thanks Virgil! You’re the best!” Patton said. Virgil smile his good bye and hung up the phone. Then something occurred to him. He wasn’t doing something he should be doing. He ran through what was happening: he’d cleaned the kitchen, set up the couch, Roman was in the shower. Roman was in the shower! He hadn’t thought to offer Roman any pyjamas, and he was sure Roman wouldn’t want to sleep in his jeans. Virgil was not about to make Roman sleep on his couch undressed, he wouldn’t put either of them through that.

He went to his room and found some airline pyjamas he’d inherited after his dad had flown business class once, and the pyjamas had shrunk in the wash. He heard the shower stop and he knocked on the door of the bathroom.

“Um, I got you some pyjamas.” Virgil said to the door. “Oh, and Patton called, I told him you were still alive, and he wants you to call him.”

“One moment,” Roman said through the door. There was a click and Roman opened the door wearing the towel. Virgil handed over the pyjamas speechlessly, focusing his energy on not staring. “Thanks,” Roman said before closing the door again. Virgil shook himself and went back to his room.

Virgil and Roman caught the bus into work in relative silence. Roman had his phone out and was looking on a job-search app, scrolling through posting after posting, with occasional commentary.

“How the hell am I supposed to get experience for an entry level job?” He mused, and Virgil smirked. Virgil had only managed to get his job at the library because he’s volunteered there in high school and college. If Joan hadn’t known him already there was no way in hell he would have survived a job interview. As he watched Roman scroll he had an idea, but it was kind of out there. Better not to say anything until he was sure he could pull it off.

Virgil opened up and did his best to quickly do the inventory he hadn’t finished the previous night. Roman sat down in his usual chair, still on the app.

“Logan is scheduled to get here at 10, and Patton starts at 11:30 for his cooking class, so if you want to avoid them more …” Virgil trailed off, sure he’d been going somewhere with that sentence.

“Oh, no problem. Pat and I talked last night. It was unbelievably awkward. I thought the best part of getting kicked out of home was avoiding ‘the talk’ but apparently not.”

Virgil’s brain was racing at a million miles an hour, trying to piece together what Roman was saying.

“Wait, you got kicked out of home?!”

“Oh? Did I not tell you the whole story? My parents wanted me to go into medicine or engineering or law and I did theatre. That and I was a tad … shall we say promiscuous. My parents are a bit traditional and subscribe to the whole you should only ever be with your soulmate, even if it’s just kissing. So, everything sort of added up and voila!” Roman told the story with his whole body, Virgil felt like he was watching a show.

Virgil shot a quick email off and then realised he should probably say something to Roman. The guy had just spent a night at his house despite knowing almost nothing about him, and now that Virgil knew all that, he couldn’t keep Roman in the dark.

“Well,” Virgil said, hating his voice for shaking, “I kind of still haven’t finished college.”

“Really?” Roman looked very surprised, “but you’re so smart.”

Virgil did not blush at this comment. He didn’t!

“Well, um, I wasn’t really in a good headspace when I was in college and tests and stuff just stress me out, so I decided to take a semester off, and then Joan hired me here. They’re helping me finish with a degree in Library Science, so I can stay here.”

“You don’t want to do anything else? What about adventure?”

“I get plenty of that right here.”

Virgil’s computer pinged with a response to his email. Yes! He thought. Joan had responded quickly.

“Hello Virgil,

I like the idea of running drama classes from the library, especially with Summer break coming up. If the candidate you have in mind can provide a CV, you can handle the rest of the process. Don’t take on too much though, you know what will happen.

Miss you,  
\- Joan.”

“Hey Roman,” Virgil said, “Can you send me a copy of you CV? Use the library’s email address”

“Sure,” Roman tapped at his phone and another ping came from the computer. Virgil read the CV, plenty of experience in acting and he’d even run a few young thespians workshops in college. Perfect.

“Well, Roman, it looks like you have a job.”

“I do?”

“Yep, if you want.” Virgil was suddenly very apprehensive. What if Roman didn’t want to work at the library? He swallowed, “You can run acting workshops here, I just asked my boss and they said yes.”

“Seriously?” Roman bounded over and read Joan’s email over Virgil shoulder. “Yes! Oh my God thank you Virgil!” Roman danced behind the counter.

It seemed like nothing. Not even the embarrassment of seeing Patton and Logan, could burst Roman’s happy bubble. Of course, humans had a tendency to be arseholes so eventually something had to give.

“Hey!” Roman’s demeanour changed immediately when he saw two high school boys harassing a girl. “That is not how you get a girl to like you. In fact. I’d imagine you’d be hard pressed to get anyone to like you if you act like that.” The boys took one look at Roman and fled. Roman sat the girl down on the couch and offered her some of the cookies Patton’s class had made.

“How does one get someone to like them?” Logan asked from behind the desk, he and Virgil were scanning in returns.

“Oh, Logan, you just have to be yourself. It worked for us.” Patton moved behind Logan to give him a hug. Virgil mimed vomiting. “You just have to make sure they feel listened to.”

“Or you could be way cooler than that and do what I always do?”

“Which is?” Virgil asked, snark evident in his voice.

“You find out whatever might be making their life difficult.”

This mighty actually not suck, Virgil thought.

“And you kill it.” Oh well, Virgil thought.

“That’s not how the world works.” Virgil said.

“Oh, so you think you can do better?” Logan asked.

“Better than that.” Virgil smirked.

“Well, then you get a chance,” Patton picked Roman up and moved him to beside Virgil.

“Fine, first you take them by the hand.” He grabbed Roman’s hand and - Holy shit!

“Oh my God!” He heard Roman cry.

Virgil screamed and pulled his hand back to reveal his soulmark, now red instead of black. He looked over at Roman who was staring at his own hand, which was now purple. Virgil realised he’d never noticed Roman’s soulmark, probably because hand ones were so common he hadn’t even noticed it.

“I suppose this means I have to run the library alone now.” Logan sighed.

“Consider this revenge, for when you found Patton,” Roman said. Virgil was glad Roman was saying something because he seemed to have forgotten how to speak.

“Virgil, do you want to go?” Roman was holding Virgil’s hand again and it was very warm. Virgil looked at Roman properly. Roman was his soulmate! His mind kept screaming at him. The more Virgil looked at Roman, the better he felt about it.

“Yes,” he said, allowing Roman to sweep him off his feet and out of the library.


End file.
